I tell you:
there is no God
for this world will march
to its own dying end
without care or
comfort, and
most of all, without
repentance for
its sins.
If there were a God
we would not be allowed
to live without one —
so callously, so
brazenly.
Otherwise
who chooses
by their own will
to succumb to Another
without force or
manipulation,
without
something gained?
And what is to be gained, if
history tells the truth,
is the control of
Another’s story in order
to obtain domination
of yet another,
but this gain
is not God
and — lest we be proud —
there is also no God to be found
in our sin-sick souls
where Another
is but an
idea
an imagining
for our fantasies
for our self-doubts
for our violent otherings.
Hidden within our secret truths
there is no God who can
trump the ego.
Fools may say it
but we who are so certain
that we are not foolish,
who are so sure
that we are
faithful,
we ourselves live it.
There is no God.
.
a lament over white theology
Psalm 14:1a — Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
the phrase “sin-sick soul” comes from There Is A Balm in Gilead, an African American spiritual